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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Sir John A. Day

Tomorrow is Sir John A. Macdonald day in Canada. All good Canadians will know that he was Canada's first prime minister and one of the chief architects of confederation. He bound the country together by way of a railway and fended off the "Manifest Destiny" idea of our friends to the south.

I wonder what Canada would be like today had Robert Redford, Elizabeth May, Al Gore and David Suzuki, the Four Horsepersons of the Enviropocalypse been alive during the days of Sir John A. Surely they would have tried to stop the railway. Imagine! An iron rail straddling our land wreaking environmental havoc upon the Prairie pasturelands and the Rocky Mountains! And then highways! Roads scarring the landscape! Trains and trucks actually transporting goods back and forth across Canada! What an abomination! And cars! Cars! Automobiles! People, that cancerous blight upon the earth, having the freedom to move from East to West, and then back again! And please don't get me started on airports and jet planes!

Tomorrow let us all hang our heads in shame as we bemoan what Sir John A. got started on our part of the continent. Let's honour Elizabeth May and change the name to May Day! Indeed, if Bob, Liz, Al and Dave had their way, we'd all be shouting Mayday! Mayday!